Welcome to another The Hockey News – Vancouver Canucks site article series. In this set of features, we’ll be taking a look at the 2025–26 Canucks coaching staff and their careers as players in the NHL. To start this series off, we’ll be looking at newly-appointed Vancouver head coach Adam Foote.
Before Foote joined the Canucks organization in January of 2023 as an assistant coach to former head coach Rick Tocchet, he spent 20 years in the NHL as a tough, hard-nosed defenceman. He spent the bulk of his time in the NHL with the Québec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche, as well as a handful of seasons with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Had it not been for his brief stint with the Blue Jackets, Foote would have been a career Nordique/Avalanche, as he was drafted 22nd overall by the organization in 1989.
Prior to joining the NHL, Foote played for the Soo Greyhounds of the OHL for three seasons. The defenceman piled points upon points onto his OHL career with each year that he played in the league for. In his first season, 1988–89, he scored seven goals and 31 assists in 66 games played. Both his goals and assists outputs increased the season after, as he put up 12 goals and 43 assists in 61 games. In his final season with the Greyhounds in 1990–91, during which he served as an assistant captain, Foote scored 18 goals and 51 assists in only 59 games.
Despite his point totals in the OHL, throughout his NHL career, Foote was known for his defensively-sound qualities as a stay-at-home blueliner. He played in 46 games during his first season with the Nordiques, scoring two goals and five assists. He made his NHL debut in October of 1991, registered his first NHL point in November of the same year, and scored his first NHL goal in January of 1992 against the Calgary Flames.
In the 1992–93 season, Foote registered 168 penalty minutes in 81 games and added 16 points to his stats. He also got his first taste of NHL playoff action with the Nordiques, skating in all six of the team’s postseason games in their loss to the Montréal Canadiens in the first round. By the time Québec made it back to the playoffs, Foote had played in nearly four NHL seasons. This run ended in the same result as Foote’s first — a six-game first round loss, this time to the New York Rangers. It was after this season, 1994–95, that the Nordiques were relocated to Colorado.
The move to Colorado seemed to mark a turning point in the franchise’s playoff performances, as the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in their first season after their relocation. From their first season in Colorado, 1995–96, to 2006–07, the Avalanche did not miss the playoffs. This dynasty included two Stanley Cup wins, four Conference Final losses, and two Semi-Final defeats.
During his first regular season in Colorado, Foote scored five goals and 11 assists in 73 games played. He also contributed during the playoffs with a goal and three assists in 22 games. Ironically enough, after facing first-round demons in the two playoff series he’d played in before, Foote and the Avalanche took down none other than the Canucks in order to make it to the second round of the postseason. To make matters even more ironic, they also swept Vancouver during the first round of their second Stanley Cup win in 2001. Both Western Conference teams were considered powerhouses around this time, with the West Coast Express line of Markus Näslund, Todd Bertuzzi, and Brendan Morrison leading the way for the Canucks.
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Foote was named an assistant captain for the Avalanche in the 1996–97 season, serving in this role until the end of the 2003–04 season. Offensively speaking, he had some of his best years towards the end of his first stint with the Avalanche (more on that later). In the 2001–02 season, Foote scored five goals and 22 assists in 55 games played, adding a goal and six assists to this total as well in Colorado’s 21-game Conference Final loss. In this same season, he joined Team Canada at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, winning his first international gold medal. He hit his career-high in points the season after with 11 goals and 20 assists in 78 games, and followed that up with eight goals and 22 assists in 73 games in 2003–04.
With the lockout keeping players from playing during the 2004–05 season, Foote joined Team Canada at the World Cup of Hockey and put up three assists in six games. He was joined by Canuck at the time Ed Jovanovski and soon-to-be Canuck Roberto Luongo. In Canada’s undefeated tournament win, capped off by a 3–2 victory against Team Finland, Foote was named to the All-Tournament Team alongside Martin Brodeur (Canada), Kimmo Timonen (Finland), Fredrik Modin (Sweden), Vincent Lecavailer (Canada), and Saku Koivu (Finland).
By the time the NHL resumed play, Foote had moved on from the Avalanche, signing a three-year deal with the Blue Jackets. He was named captain in his first season with the team and scored six goals and 16 assists in 65 games with Columbus. In the following years, he scored nine goals and 25 assists in 124 games before the Blue Jackets ultimately decided to trade him back to Colorado in exchange for a first-round and fourth-round pick.
After reuniting with the Avalanche, Foote spent the better half of three more seasons with Colorado, during two of which he acted as the team’s captain. The 2010–11 season was his final one as a player, as Foote made the decision to retire at the end of the year. However, it didn’t take him long to find his way back to the NHL, as he became a team consultant for the Avalanche in the 2013–14 season — two years after his retirement as a player.
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